I hate nonstick cookware--it never lasts. And for that matter, it's never "nonstick". I get things stuck to it all the time

Let me tell you from personal experience that Calphalon non stick pans do not fit at all with what you just said above. My pans are many years old and get almost daily use and they are just about as good as the day I took them out of the box. Nothing has ever stuck to them, not even once, and that includes the pan that has a big deep scratch. Not only has nothing stuck to the pan, even on the scratch, but the scratch has never gotten worse and has never peeled.

From reading all of these posts about All Clad vs. whomever, All Clad seems to win out every time. Since the others have fans of their own, I still can't imagine that All Clad would be worth triple what every other brand costs. So I have to ask the All Clad owners, do you feel that your foods cook three times better/easier/etc. than they did before you started cooking with All Clad? I really don't mind picking up a piece or two if you really think it's THAT good.

I don't know if I can put a number of it BlueCat, but what I can say is that AllClad performs the way I expect it to. There are virtually no hotspots. Food cooks evenly. The pans hold up to anything I throw at them. They look good (low on my priority list, but still a plus). Basically if I have the money to spend then I am happy spending it on AllClad. If I did not have the money to spend then I could be perfectly happy with a different brand.

i went to a le gourmet chef outlet store, and i have to say it pales in comparison to all clad. nice looking, much less expensive, but also much, much lighter. i passed on it.

Ya know, I heard that so many times on diffferent boards, that I weighed equally sized (3 quart saauce pan, no lid) Le Gourmet Chef and All-Cald pans on a kitchen scale in the store. No discernible difference!

Try eBay. I purchased an All-Clad Copper Core 12" Fry Pan from a seller on eBay, brand new, never used and in the original box, for $129.95 plus $13 shipping, no tax. It arrived in perfect condition. Same thing is $200 from Williams-Sonoma, plus $16.50 tax and $22 shipping.

I also bought a brand-new All-Clad 8-quart Stainless Steel Stockpot on eBay for $100 -- Williams-Sonoma gets $258 for that beauty!

Of course, you have to be careful on eBay -- deal only with reliable, experienced sellers with high feedback scores, and ask a lot of questions to be sure what you're buying is the genuine article and that it's new. Look for PayPal Buyer Protection, and use PayPal for your purchase. If you have problems, complain.

Ya know, I heard that so many times on diffferent boards, that I weighed equally sized (3 quart saauce pan, no lid) Le Gourmet Chef and All-Cald pans on a kitchen scale in the store. No discernible difference!

i dunno about the smaller pans. i only compared the larger 6 qt. saute pan while holding the le gourmet, the all clad from memory. it just seemed lighter.

it certainly looked ok, and was less than half the price, but i want just one, very large, very heavy stainless steel saute. actually, i was hoping the all clad was even heavier, like the weight of cast iron, but in stainless.

I don't doubt that All Clad is super nice pan, but...they're a huge pain to wash, especially when oil gets burnt on. I've scrubbed thousands of them (I'm sure it's thousands), and it takes a good while with a lot of elbow grease and a good "green scrubby" or two to make them almost like new again. Of course, I'm washing at least five year old pans that are used in a resteraunt. At home, I'm sure they wouldn't see the same kind of abuse they do where I work. God...washing dishes...what a pain.